9-20-11 Dinner Blog

 

An Easy Mistake to Make…

I started dinner early – around 3 o’clock when I took the shrimp out of the freezer and thought I would get ahead and make some brown rice for the stir-fry.  I set the rice cooker, put the shrimp in the fridge and left.

It wasn’t until I came home around 5:15 that I realized that I didn’t need brown rice – I was using soba noodles!  Well, now I have a generous portion of brown rice.  I will figure out some way to use it…

An Easy Fix…

Following “6 Steps to Better Stir-Fries”, from Cooking Light’s October 2011 issue, I began dinner prep by taking the shrimp and veggies out of the refrigerator. I rinsed the snow peas and heated water for the soba noodles.  Then I washed and chopped the green onion, tomato, bell pepper, and cut up the pineapple.  Then I made the ginger hoisin sauce, mixing green onions, rice wine vinegar, Braggs Liquid Aminos or low sodium soy sauce, fresh ginger, honey and hoisin sauce.

With my ingredients ready to go, I heated the wok, added 1 T of canola oil down the side of the wok and spread it around. Adding the bell pepper and green onion, I let the veggies sit for a moment and then stirred it around, followed by the snow peas and tomato.

By this time, the water was boiling and I added the soba noodles.  I took the veggies out of the wok, added the shrimp and cooked for about 3 minutes.  Then I put the veggies back in, added the ginger hoisin sauce and the soba noodles that were now cooked.

2 minutes later, I portioned 4 servings topped with pineapple pieces and we sat down to eat!

An Easy A

This was a winner!  A 9 all around! Even my toughest critic gave it a 9 and a two thumbs up! The ginger hoisin flavor was really tasty and everyone loved the shrimp. I really liked the soba noodles – a buckwheat noodle, it was a healthy option and a nice change from rice.  The meal was very satisfying.  3 of us had a small second portion, and there were no leftovers!

 

Recipe

Shrimp Stir-Fry with Vegetables and Soba Noodles

For 2 Adults and 2 Kids

 

Ingredients:

1 Package of Soba Noodles

1 Bell pepper

½ bunch green onions

1 Tomato

¼ – 1/3 lb. Snow peas

8 t rice wine vinegar

6 t Braggs Liquid Aminos or low sodium soy sauce

2 t Fresh ginger, chopped

2 t honey

4 t hoisin sauce

1.75 lbs. shrimp

2 T Canola oil

Fresh pineapple cut into pieces

 

Instructions:

1. Heat water for soba noodles.
2. Wash and chop bell pepper, green onions, tomato.
3. Rinse snow peas.  You can substitute with different vegetables: broccoli, mushrooms, edamame, etc.
4. Combine rice wine vinegar, liquid aminos (or low sodium soy sauce), ginger, honey, and hoisin sauce and set aside.
5. When water is boiling, add soba noodles per package direction (~6 minutes).
6. Heat wok and pour 1 T canola oil down the side of the wok and spread the oil around.
7. Add bell pepper and green onions.  Let sit a moment before stirring.  When beginning to get tender, add tomato and snow peas and cook for 2-3 more minutes.
8. Remove veggies from heat.  Add one more T of canola oil down the side of the wok, spread it around and cook the shrimp 3-4 minutes or until cooked.
9. Add the veggies, noodles and ginger hoisin sauce.
10. Portion a serving on each plate, top with pineapple and serve!